This invention relates to a novel form of casket, the casket comprising a shell formed of sheet material and having a frame adapted to surround the shell and being separably interconnected with the shell, the frame having casket-handling components.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a construction of the kind referred to above and further in which the casket has an appropriate and attractive appearance, notwithstanding fabrication of the casket shell of relatively inexpensive sheet material.
The shell and the frame have interengageable load-transmitting abutments providing for manually carrying the casket by manually engaging handling components mounted on the frame.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the shell of the casket is formed of sheet metal, and the various parts or portions of the shell, referred to in the following description, are preferably integrated into a single structure. The shell preferably has an upper portion with an upwardly presented opening and also has a downwardly closed bottom portion, the upper and bottom portions of the shell being interconnected by a generally horizontal junction strip. According to this preferred embodiment, the frame having the casket-handling components surrounds the bottom portion of the shell, with the upper edge of the frame in abutting relation to the junction strip interconnecting the upper and lower portions of the shell.
In this manner, the weight of the casket can readily be carried by the handling components mounted on the frame, and the necessity for attachment of handling components directly to the shell of the casket is eliminated.
In a preferred embodiment, the junction strip between the upper and lower portions of the shell preferably extends not only along the longitudinal edges of the casket but also along the end edges thereof, and the frame has casket-handling components similarly extended not only along the longitudinal edges of the casket but also along the end edges thereof.
The foregoing preferred construction of the casket has various advantages including the fact that the handling or carrying load is distributed along both the sides of the casket as well as along the ends thereof. This load distribution around the perimeter of the casket makes possible the fabrication of the casket shell from sheet material of various forms and especially of sheet metal which is much thinner than is practical to employ in the absence of the arrangement referred to of the shell and a surrounding load-carrying framing.
It is another object of the invention to provide not only for effective load-carrying capability of the framing surrounding the shell, but also to provide a system in which the framing is readily separable from the shell. When arranged to provide for this ready separation of the framing from the shell, it becomes practical to provide for repeated reuse of the framing, by separation of the framing of the shell before the act of interment.
When employing this ready separability of the carrying framing from the shell, it is also an object of the invention to utilize a framing, desirably formed of fine quality wood, which framing may be highly decorative and attractive, which becomes practical and feasible by virtue of the reusability of the framing with sequential funeral services.
The shape of the shell may be varied according to different tastes and according to the character of the sheet materials being employed to form the shell, but in the case of a sheet metal shell, one embodiment of the invention contemplates the provision of a shell of which both the lower and the upper portions thereof are upwardly flared, with the generally horizontal junction strip above referred to disposed between the flared wall of the lower portion and the flared wall of the upper portion. This makes possible production of the shell by so-called deep drawing of thin sheet metal material.
The capability of forming the shell by deep drawing of thin sheet metal material is of substantial advantage because this eliminates the necessity for corner welding of sheet metal components.
It is contemplated to employ a lid for the casket or shell of conventional configuration or construction in any of the embodiments referred to.